Challenges and new beginnings: Priorities for the EU’s new leadership

There has been a lot of attention on the transition of power taking place in Brussels in 2014. The new EU leadership will be confronted with a number of internal and external challenges. They will have deal with economic stagnation, the negative effects of fragmentation and the need to increase the Union's legitimacy. There is no better moment to take stock of the ‘state of the Union’ and to look ahead into the next European political cycle (2014-2019), focusing not on personalities but on content: what challenges do we face and what should the EU focus on in the coming years? These new beginnings will encounter new challenges, and who better understands the issues than some of the key players in European politics. Challenge Europe brings these players together and explores what social, political and economic challenges are facing Europe, and its’ citizens.

This article forms part of an issue of Challenge Europe called 'Challenges and new beginnings: Priorities for the EU’s new leadership' as the launch of a new EU institutional cycle 2014-2019 began.